—The third story of the Gushi Food Culture Series
There is an old saying that "peers are wrongdoers".
But you also have to admit that as far as an industry is concerned, more than a few competitors compete with each other and compete with each other, but they can bring an industry back to life and promote the healthy development of an industry.
It is as if because of the emergence of Didi, in many places, the service of taxis and Didi is more standardized, and the service attitude is better.
In the catering industry in my hometown of Gushi County, Henan Province, there are also two factions competing with each other, secretly fighting each other, and learning from each other, and it is very worth affirming that through the benign competition between these two factions, the great development of the gastronomy industry in Gushi County has been greatly promoted.
These two factions are the "Nanshan Faction" and the "Beishui Faction" active in the Gushi catering industry.
Gushi County has a very large geographical area, close to 3,000 square kilometers, the south is dominated by mountainous hills, the north is densely packed along the Huaize River, under this geographical condition, Gushi cuisine presents a very distinct "Nanshan Beishui" regional characteristics, that is, the "Nanshan School" cooking with Nanshan specialties as raw materials of native vegetables, farmhouse rice and "Beishui School" made of river fresh cuisine, they are the vane leading the development of Gushi cuisine industry!
In the large and small restaurants in Gushi County, there are often such things happening: today, the owner of a "Nanshan Pie" restaurant launched the "Mountain Pine After rain, red mushroom stewed bamboo forest walk to eat insect chicken" stimulated the taste buds of diners, and before long, the owner of a "Beishui Pie" restaurant will quickly launch "braised crucian carp", and then attract the foodies to their own restaurants, without showing weakness to pull back a round.
In this way, the two schools of kitchen gods you do not let me, I do not let you, with the introduction of dishes and the praise of diners to compete between male and female, not only by the majority of diners welcome, but also unconsciously, greatly enriched and innovated the variety and connotation of Gushi cuisine. Let's discuss them separately:
Let's first talk about the "Nanshan cuisine" of the "Nanshan Pie": "Today weekend, go!" Go to Nanshan for farmhouse meals!" Whenever the weekend comes, this is the words that many Gushi people hang on their lips, and everyone often meets a few friends to climb the mountain, see the lake, and walk the river valley in the Nanshan Scenic Area.
At noon, Gushi people who pay special attention to eating will never only use biscuits and ham sausages to fill their hunger, and a hearty farmhouse meal is essential.
Many of the farmhouse restaurants in Nanshan are in the middle of the mountainside, and when it is close to eating, you can slowly walk in the green mountains with the cooking smoke from the pine branches, making you feel as if you are in a fairyland.
There are several must-order "ten hard dishes" to eat Nanshan farmhouse rice: red mushroom stewed bamboo forest walk after the rain in the mountain pine to eat insect chicken, farmhouse vegetable garden green pepper fried small river stone swimming fish, Nanshan vegetable skin fried tea tree soil eggs, Moso bamboo shoot roasted meat slices, Nanshan stinky dried dried meat shredded meat, specially eat sweet potato stalk black pork pork stew sand radish, red pepper fried Nanshan snow rabbit, Nanshan tube fresh fish, braised Nanshan climbing Rock Huai goat, black leaf green vegetable Kang Shan Spring Water Tofu (a kind of green vegetables similar to Gushi yellow cabbage but different, the stem is dark green).
In winter, the owners of Nanshan Farmhouse Will enthusiastically recommend a variety of Nanshan wax flavors and wax-flavored clay pots cooked from this wax product.
Especially in the snowy winter, when you and a few old friends sit around the charcoal-red clay pot, strange scenes often appear like this: on the one hand, the soup in the hot pot is boiling, bubbling and overflowing, on the other hand, the side dishes such as cabbage, vermicelli, tofu, and bean sticks can't help but be tempted by the aroma in the pot, and they jump into the boiling hot pot and start a variety of "tricks to swim".
Then the orgasm comes again!
The diners opened the altar of Qingfengling millet wine simmered in hot water, hid in the wine altar for a long time to think of the aroma molecules, and rushed out of the altar, running around the house excitedly and naughtily.
When you see such a scene, people who can only drink two or two small drinks usually will probably increase their alcohol consumption immediately.
However, a warm reminder: although this millet wine is delicious and sweet, it must not be "drunk and played", there is a certain staying power, everyone must not be too greedy!
The folk customs of the Nanshan mountain people are very simple, and eating farm meals in these places does not need to worry about such things as sky-high fish and shrimp. At this point, please rest assured that the majority of tourists from other places.
Let's talk about the "Beishui cuisine" of the "Beishui Sect":
In our Gushi County, there is a writer with the screen name "Huaihe Yusuo", who has an extraordinary proficiency and research on the cuisine of Sanhejian, especially the cooking methods of river clams, and suggests that you can read more about the food articles he wrote about Sanhejian.
It was through reading his articles on the cuisine along the Huai that I learned more about Sanhejian, an ancient town with an unusually thick history.
In recent years, in the restaurants in Gushi city and countryside, dishes based on cooking Huaihe fresh and Sanhe brine dishes have also become a rising star in the gastronomic industry.
There are also several must-order dishes in the "North Water Cuisine": roasted river clams, sweet and sour ant shrimp, stir-fried shrimp, crucian carp stewed fish roe cake, slippery catfish, blackfish more eat, roasted waist skin, loach lying eggs, tile fish, braised turtle to rooster, bacon yellow eel, fried crabs, steamed bream, red stewed goya, braised crucian flowers, fish head tofu soup, crispy fish hot pot.
You may have noticed that in the "Northern Water Dish", I put the river clam in the first place, do you know why?
Because I strongly recommend the clams in the Three Rivers area to everyone, its delicious taste and its nutrition are completely worthy of the reputation of "abalone in the Huai River"!
In the impression of Gushi people, leek fried clams and clam gnocchi soup are eaten more in restaurants, but Gushi Beixiang people also specially use green and red peppers to fry clams, and then roll them in pancake buns to eat, which is a must for Food along Huai.
Although the sanhejian in our county is only about 35 kilometers away from Fuyang City in Anhui Province, a Huai River has vividly separated Fuyang, an important transportation hub in Anhui Province, and Gushi County, the five regional central cities of Henan Province planned, and there is no high-speed rail, high-speed, intercity, Pudong railway, and highway, which has become a common regret of the people on both sides of the strait for decades!
But even so, every spring and summer season, there are many diners from Fuyang, and the ferry boat also has to go to the Sanhejian Restaurant on the other side to taste the fat clams, which shows the delicious temptation of this little clam.
This river clam is not only delicious and delicious, but also has many magical effects.
According to authoritative records, river clams can not only be used as medicinal materials for traditional Chinese medicine, but also have the effects of appetizing, milking, blinding, diuretic, dehumidifying, treating liver disease, measles and fever, cough and phlegm, alcohol, etc., but also a natural food for livestock and fish.
If you go to the tip of the three rivers in Gushi County, only visit the scenery of the ruins of the ancient town, and do not taste this delicious clam, it is simply a pity.
At present, the competition between the "Nanshan Faction" and the "Beishui Faction" in the Gushi catering industry in our county is a benign competition worthy of affirmation.
However, from the overall situation, the "Nanshan Faction" is slightly superior.
In the urban and rural restaurants in Gushi County, there are really many restaurants that play the "Nanshan Tucai" signboard, but the restaurants that show the "Huaihe Fish Fresh" signboard are indeed not as many as the "Nanshan Cuisine", but the two have their own advantages in the future competition: the number of restaurants for Nanshan native vegetables and Nanshan Farmhouse Rice is more than that of the "Beishui Cuisine" restaurants, which is also to a certain extent, reflecting that in Gushi County, the tourism in the southern mountainous areas is better than that along the Huai Township, but the "Nanshan Faction" will do a good job in the unification and integration of dishes in the future. Promote the upgrading and development of Nanshan's catering industry with the establishment of brands, and prevent the phenomenon of fish and dragons mixing beads due to the surge in the number of restaurants.
On the basis of the "Beishui Sect" making great efforts to increase the number of restaurants and sound the "Beishui Cuisine" signboard, we must not forget a very important thing, that is, we must give play to the charm of the ancient town of Sanhejian, which was once the "Little Shanghai" of the Huaihe River, and publicize the "Beishui Cuisine" by excavating the culture of the Sanhe Ancient Town.
The author suggests that activities such as "touring the ancient town of Sanhe and tasting ancient cuisine" can be launched in a timely manner.
In other words, "Beishui cuisine" should not only be "dish", but also "culture", because this is your unique advantage!
In November 2017, Gushi's "Dabie Mountain Health Welcome Banquet" won the gold medal of the 5th Yu Cuisine Brand Competition Henan Traditional Flavor Feast at the first Zhongyuan Catering Expo.
At the same time, the Chinese cooking personal project and the catwalk image display project won 1 special gold award and 4 gold medals, which shows the important position of Gushi cuisine in Henan's gastronomic industry.
Coincidentally, in November 2018, at the 19th Hainan International Tourism Island Fun Festival and the 4th Hainan International Tourism And Food Expo, Gushi Cuisine was accompanied by delicious dishes from 14 countries and regions and 25 domestic provinces and cities, and was tasted by Chinese and foreign guests, Jiang Jiding, director of the Department of Culture and Tourism of Henan Province, Tong Guangliang, director of the Tourism Bureau of Xinyang City, and many Chinese and foreign guests praised the delicious food from Gushi.
Gushi dish, fragrant island!
At the end of this article, the author also affectionately appeals to the vast number of "Nanshan Faction" and "Beishui Faction" to be the first in friendship, food first, competition second, and jointly promote Gushi cuisine to go out of the Central Plains and resound the whole country!
About the Author
Meng Jun, currently working for the Gushi County Tobacco Bureau, is a local writer in Gushi, good at cultural planning and loves literary creation. His long poem "Marshal Luo Ronghuan Shi Ming" was selected in 2012 to commemorate the 110th anniversary of Luo Shuai's birth, and the long poem "The Poetry biography of Mr. Sun Yat-sen" was selected in the "Xiangshan Poetry Journal" to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Mr. Zhongshan's birth in 2016 to collect poetry albums, the work "Comrade Jiao Yulu Poetry Biography" is now preserved in the Memorial Hall of Comrade Jiao Yulu's Former Residence in Zibo City, Shandong Province, and the literary work "Lu Gou Soul" was once reported by Henan Provincial Television Station, and the work "Zhengqi Song" was once reported by Henan Provincial Television. In 2015, he won the first prize of the Provincial Tobacco System Poetry Creation Campaign.
In his spare time, Comrade Meng Jun is also an enthusiastic propagandist of hometown tourism, food and specialties, and has written a large number of literary works related to this in recent years, and is particularly good at using "net" things to publicize. His online works "China's Good Figure - Gushi Tourism Introduction to the Seven Character Classic", "Gushi on the Tip of the Tongue", "Poetry Says Tateshi City", "Gushi, a Beautiful Town", "Gushi, a Food Town", "Mao Jianzan" are deeply loved by the majority of netizens. "Gushi on the Tip of the Tongue" has had more than 18,000 hits on the WeChat platform, "Gushi, a Food Town" has a click rate of more than 25,000 times, and "Poetry Says Tateshi" has been reprinted by many online media.